Love and Strawberries
by Cerii-chan Kawaii
Summary: Summer, and everything that could possibly go wrong in the Sohma family is happening. The family is being torn apart, and Tohru is forced to watch on the sidelines, growing sadder every day. Who will save them?


Summary: It's summer, and everything that could ever go wrong in the Sohma family is happening. Yuki and Kyo have both confessed their love to Tohru; she refuses to choose one of them and keeps mostly to herself. Kazuma has been hospitalized by Akito, and Ayame and Shigure have set off to find Hatori, who disappeared right after Kana gave birth to a baby. Tension is everywhere, and the family is heading straight downward. What will happen? Who will save them?

Love and Strawberries 

By Cerri

Chapter One

Tohru didn't know what to do, so she picked strawberries.

She hummed as she wove between the rows, not a real song, but an odd little tune she had heard once before.

"Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, huckleberries, redberries, boysenberries, berries for you and me. Purpleberries, yellowberries, greenberries, pinkberries, gooseberries, mooseberries, berries for you and me."

She suddenly remembered laughing, her head in Kyoko's lap, as her mother sung this little song to her so many years ago.

"Strangeberries, normalberries, trueberries, lieberries, orangeberries, grapeberries, berries for you and me."

Her mother stopped singing in her memory, and bent over her as she giggled, her whisper sugar on candy lips. "I love you, Tohru," she'd murmur, hugging her tightly. "I love you."

And now, the same words came floating back to her, but in a different voice, in a different way, in a different time.

"I… I love you, Tohru," he had said awkwardly, squatting on the floor in front of her, looking down. His orange hair had hid the flame of his cheeks. "I always have."

And now, again, but as she had taken off running into the woods, her mind flashes of color and light and words.

"I love you, Tohru!" he had called, watching her from the back porch with his beautiful amethyst eyes. "I always have!"

Told by two boys who were her brothers that she was loved. This should make her happy, shouldn't it?

But it didn't. To be so wanted was a burden. They would fight amongst themselves for her, and she didn't want that. She loved to hear them bicker, but not actually fight. It might escalate, and one of them might get hurt.

And if her almost-brother got hurt because of her, there would be no one to blame but herself.

So she was picking strawberries, deep in the woods in a small clearing she had stumbled across one day, a clearing nobody but her knew about, a clearing in which she had planted strawberries so long ago. And now she picked them, twisted them gently off their stems and placed them in a small woven basket. She tried to keep the two boys she loved as brothers in the back of her mind.

But even though the thought was separated by the ocean of her mind, residue kept washing up on her shore.

Gardening with Yuki… Cooking with Kyo… There were so many things she loved about them both. They wanted her to choose.

But she couldn't. If she did, it would kill her.

Maybe she should talk to them, tell them how she felt about _them. _Loving her, helping her, protecting her. All the things a brother should do. And besides, she wasn't _old _enough to have a boyfriend yet… was she?

The word sounded so odd on her tongue. Boyfriend. She tried it out loud. "Boyfriend." The word echoed slightly throughout the clearing. A bird chirped in answer. She wasn't sure whether she liked it or not.

"Appleberries, plumberries, blackberries, whiteberries, goodberries, badberries, berries for you and me."

Soon, her basket was full. She sat against a tree and rested for a moment, looking up at the sky through the trees. It was so peaceful, away from the dilemma she'd have to face at the house. But she knew she'd have to go back, eventually.

And eventually, she did.

Twilight was approaching when she walked in through the back door of the Sohma house. Yuki and Kyo were sitting on the couch, as far away from each other as possible, each doing homework. They did not notice her come in; if they did, they didn't show it. Feeling slightly relieved that the boys didn't pressure her at once, she placed the strawberries on the kitchen table. She quickly washed them, spooned them out into three bowls, and covered them with cream and sugar that she found in the pantry. Then, with three little neat bowls of strawberries and cream, she sighed, and climbed the stairs into her own room upstairs, crawling into bed and falling asleep soon after she had pulled the sheets around her.


End file.
